PUBLISHED: 01:48, 16 June 2019 | UPDATED: 10:15, 16 June 2019


Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has promised to give financial and political support to Cuba’s brutal Communist regime under a future Labour government.

The vow comes despite widespread accounts of arbitrary detention, beatings and political repression.

Standing in front of a Che Guevara flag, senior Left-winger Mr McDonnell said that Britain under Labour would be the repressive state’s ‘staunchest ally’.

The event, held at the headquarters of the RMT, one of the most militant and Left-wing trade unions in Britain, saw delegates waving Cuban flags while a Cuban flag also flew from a pole atop the building.

Guests at the event in Clapham, South London, enjoyed a free bar, a hog roast and even indulged in Havana cigars at £10 each, as well as music from a Cuban salsa band and the raffle prize was two return air tickets to Cuba.

The speech came just two weeks after Mr McDonnell distanced himself from the Cuban regime, claiming ‘it was never socialism’ in an interview with The Times.

His speech was greeted with rapturous applause from the 200-strong crowd before Mr McDonnell posed for pictures for one of Cuba’s tightly controlled newspapers as attendees chanted ‘Viva Cuba’ and ‘Viva socialismo’ +3

In a speech last week to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, his promise to stand with Cuba in the face of sanctions by US President Donald Trump was in stark contrast to Mr McDonnell’s recent attempts to reassure the City that a future Labour government would not have a hidden radical agenda.


By JAMES HEALE FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY